Visual Dysfunction and Cerebral Palsy

A study in Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology reports on visual dysfunction in children with cerebral palsy.  Since 60-70% of children with cerebral palsy have cerebral visual impairment, this study wanted to explore the visual dysfunction further.  One hundred twenty nine patients with cerebral palsy ranging in age from 3 months to 15 years old […]

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Hole Punch Play Dough

After seeing this idea at JDaneil4’s Mom blog about using a hole punch with play dough, I created some quick templates for using hole punched play dough.  What a great way to sneak in some hand strengthening by using the hole punch.  It is not just the hole punch, you have to flatten the dough […]

Adapted Gardening Tools

More and more schools are starting gardening programs.  Here is an informative video on some suggestions for adapting garden tools.  Although the tools are geared for use by one boy (who used his feet and legs for the activities), the ideas could easily be adapted for other individuals.  Worth a watch if your school or […]

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Perceptions on Pediatric Group Therapy Sessions

A recent study examined administrators, therapists and parents perceptions on the use of pediatric group therapy.  Interviews and focus groups were conducted with 13 administrators, 19 therapists and 5 parents of children with special needs.  The results indicated the following: adminstrators perceived groups to help with accessibility to services increased effort on the part of […]

HWT Versus Teacher Designed Handwriting Instruction

A recent study was done comparing 8 first grade classrooms who participated in either a teacher designed handwriting program or the Handwriting Without Tears handwriting program.  The Minnesota Handwriting Assessment was used for pre test and post test scores.  The results indicated that the first grade students who participated in the teacher designed handwriting program […]

Kinesthetic Perception and Handwriting Legibility and Speed

The Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools and Early Intervention published research on haptic and kinesthetic perceptions relationships to handwriting legibility and speed  in 177 first and second grade children in Taiwan.  Haptic perception is the ability to recognize objects through touch.  Kinesthetic perception is the ability to recognize how the body moves in space.  The […]